After work at the allotment

So on the way home from work, N and I met up at our allotment to dig up what seems like ten tons of potatoes.  They are happily stored away in an assortment of saved paper bags.  I took a wander round the allotments and took some snaps of the lovely plots that other people have – none of mine this time, it’s looking more like I’m cultivated weeds…

The nice man who owns the plot next to us is growing these beauties…

And another plot that is stunning and designed like a garden complete with lawn and benches has a fence that is partly covered in a vine.  In amongst that vine are these dark, glossy green squash…

There are purple beans…

Giant cabbages…

Yellow courgettes and their delicate flowers…

Greenhouses overflowing with ripening tomatoes…

…fattening cucumbers…

…and onions drying…

There is corn as tall as me…

Blackberries are turning in the brambles surrounding the allotments…

Apple trees are groaning beneath the weight of their laden bows…

There are pears plumping up…

And fat marrows discarded by the path…

One lucky plot owner has in one small space two types of apple and a plum tree at the back, all of which are sagging, heavy with fruit…

The final burst of sweetpeas are overshadowed by their neighbours…

Mallows, hollyhocks and scrambling nasturtiums are taking over where the poppies were…

And jolly sunflowers bob in the breeze…

My allotment offers up one final surprise of early summer – another crop of ruby red strawberries, sweet and juicy…

Advertisement

RHS Tatton Flower Show 2009

I’ve spent a lovely day at the Tatton Flower Show with N’s mom.  Tatton is quite near to us, so N’s mom headed over to ours early this morning, then we set off in convoy.  The weather switched between warm sunny spells and sudden downpours – there is a constant eb-and-flow of people rushing into the pavilions as the rain buckets down, then back out into the show ground when the sun reappears.

There were some lovely garden designs this year (my favourites are always the back-to-back gardens as they are small ordinary-sized gardens), although I think there were more I loved last at last year’s show.  One of my favourite garden’s this year was ‘Be Fruitful’ and is the only one I took photographs of. 

 

I’m not a huge fruit lover (although raspberries and alpine strawberries go down a treat), but this garden was delightful.  It was an urban fruit orchard, with small espalier apple trees and strawberries in window boxes, interplanted with soft grasses and chocolate brown scabious.

We discovered these beautiful little tomatoes called red currant.  They produce slender bunches of tiny red tomatoes, much smaller than cherry tomatoes.  We picked up a seed catalogue from the exhibitor and will hopefully buy some seeds next spring to try growing them.

This exhibitor also had some other fabulous vegetables.  Including these other fabulous varieties of tomatoes…

And take a look at those onions!

And here’s something to keep me dreaming – I didn’t ask the price…

I bought some lovely things including a couple of grasses (including a bunny tails grass! very cute), a pretty new lantern, a cosy waterbottle, a outside light for the front of our house, and some fantastic sounding anti-slug pullets made from wool.  If I get time towards the end of the week I would love to share with you this great product – I put some down straight away when I got home, so we shall see if it helps my slug and snail problem.

If anyone else has been to Tatton today, or is going over the next couple of days, I hope you have a great time!